JP2002182041A - Optical/electric composite harness - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical/electric composite harness which is contributory to weight reduction and in which a flexible printed circuit harness is integrated with an optical fiber cable by a simple method. SOLUTION: A circuit wiring 32 is not formed in the POF(Plastic Optical Fiber) fixing part 30 of an FPC 9(Flexible Printed Circuits), and a cover lay 33 is directly placed on an insulating film 31. The POF fixing part 30 is composed of a POF placing part 36 for placing the POF, an extending part 34 which is extended from part of the POF placing part 36 to the width direction of the FPC 9, and a rectangular slit 35 which is bored in the thickness direction of the film of the FPC 9 along the direction orthogonal to the width direction so that the tip end of the extending part is inserted when the extending part 34 is folded back. The POF 12 which is placed on the POF placing part 36 of the FPC 9 is integrated with the FPC 9 by inserting the tip end part 34a of the extending part 34 which is folded back in the direction of the slit 35 into the slit 35.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flexible printed circuit (Flexible P
The present invention relates to an optical / electric combined harness that integrates a rinted circuit (FPC) harness and an optical fiber cable (Optical Fiber: OF) into one harness when the harness is used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transformer) supported by many European automobile manufacturers and automobile-related manufacturers as one of the standards of optical LAN for automobiles.
port) is being planned for use in actual vehicles. This MOST is, as shown in FIG. 7, a POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) 101, 1 for high-speed large-capacity data (for example, 25 Mbit / sec).
02, and the other power supply lines and signal lines use the commonly used automobile wires 103, and the connector portions 106 to 109 with the nodes 104 and 105.
Is a hybrid optical / electrical connector that can simultaneously connect light and electricity, and is applied to a LAN for automobiles.

[0003]

However, when the POF and the electric wire are used at the same time as described above, special care must be taken with respect to the wiring because the handling properties based on the characteristics and the like of each are greatly different. That is, for example, the electric wire is PO
Since the allowable bending radius is much smaller than that of F, it is possible to bend it finely, but POF cannot perform such wiring from the viewpoint of light loss, etc. Need to be routed. For this reason, in the manufacturing process of an automobile or the like, assemblability in a harness assembling line is degraded, and man-hours for wiring work are increased, which may lead to an increase in cost. Further, since the electric wire has poor heat radiation characteristics and cannot increase the circuit density, there is a concern that the weight of the harness itself is increased in the case of a multi-wire circuit harness, which is not very effective in reducing the weight of the harness.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and contributes to weight reduction and can realize an integrated harness of a flexible printed circuit harness and an optical fiber cable by a simple method. An object is to provide a combined optical / electric harness.

[0005]

An optical / electrical composite harness according to the present invention comprises a flexible printed circuit harness in which a wiring made of a conductive pattern is formed on an insulating film, and an optical circuit laid on the flexible printed circuit harness. And a fiber cable.

According to the present invention, since the optical fiber cable is laid on the FPC harness, the optical fiber cable can also be laid at the same time in the wiring step of the FPC harness. Since the FPC harness is thin and flat, it cannot be handled in the same way as an electric wire, and special attention must be paid to the assembly, such as the bending radius is regulated. This is a process similar to that described above, and the harness wiring process can be simplified by integrating the FPC harness and the optical fiber cable. In addition, the FPC has better heat dissipation characteristics than the wire harness and can be reduced in weight, so that by integrating the FPC with a lightweight optical fiber, the overall weight can be reduced.

In this case, the flexible printed circuit harness includes a main body portion on which the conductive pattern is wired,
Extending from the side of the main body, the end has a widened extension, and the main body has the front end of the extension when the extension is folded back toward the main body. A slit is inserted and locked and fixed, and the optical fiber cable is placed between the extension on the flexible printed circuit harness and the slit. The optical fiber cable may be wound around a fiber cable, the leading end of the extension portion may be fitted into the slit, and the optical fiber cable may be mounted and fixed on the flexible printed circuit harness for integration. When the composite harness of the present invention is configured in this manner, the FPC and the optical fiber can be easily integrated, so that the assemblability of the harness can be improved and the number of steps for integrating the composite harness can be reduced. Costs can be reduced.

The wiring of the flexible printed circuit harness may be formed by etching a copper foil, or may be formed by punching or plating.

[0009] Further, as the optical fiber cable,
Preferably, a plastic optical fiber is used, but a quartz optical fiber may be used.

Further, the optical fiber cable may be fixed to the flexible printed circuit harness with an adhesive or an adhesive tape, in addition to the above-described folded structure by the extending portion.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a partially schematic top view showing an automotive LAN using an optical / electric combined harness in which an FPC and a POF are integrated according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. It is the upper surface schematic diagram which expanded the part and transmitted further.

As shown in FIG. 1, an automobile LAN 1 comprises:
Nodes 5, 6, on which board connectors 2, 3, 4 are mounted
7 are connected by optical / electrical composite harnesses (hereinafter, referred to as “composite harnesses”) 14, 15, 16 in which FPCs 8, 9, 10 and POFs 11, 12, 13 are integrated. The communication between the nodes 5, 6, and 7 of the automobile LAN 1 is as follows.
For example, for large-volume data of about 25 Mbits / sec, the POFs 11, 1
2 and 13 and other data signals (including power supply) using FPCs 8, 9 and 10. The terminal portions of the composite harnesses 14, 15, 16 are connected to connectors (hereinafter, referred to as "composite connectors") 17 to 22 having both functions of optical connection and electrical connection, for example. By fitting the connectors 17 to 22 with the board connectors 2, 3, and 4, the nodes 5, 6, and 7 can be easily LAN-connected to each other by the composite harnesses 14, 15, and 16.

Inside the composite connectors 17 to 22, a ferrule for optical connection and a connection terminal for electrical connection are provided. For example, taking the composite connectors 17 and 18 as an example, the composite harness 14 is used. , 15 are connected inside the composite connectors 17 and 18 by a structure as shown in FIG. That is, the POF 11 of the composite harnesses 14 and 15
12 is connected to ferrules 23 and 24 provided in composite connectors 17 and 18, and FPC 8 and
9 is the circuit wiring 2 formed on the insulating film.
5 and 26 are connected to the connection terminals 27 and 28 by, for example, resistance welding (series welding or the like).

Such composite harnesses 14, 15, 16
The FPCs 8, 9, and 10 serving as the base material of are formed with the following features. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the FPC 9 which is a harness base material constituting the composite harness 15 is used.
As an example, this FPC 9 is an FPC circuit 29
And a POF fixing unit 30, and the FPC circuit unit 29
Is an insulating film 3 made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), etc.
1 is laminated with copper foil, and a circuit wiring 32 composed of a conductive pattern formed by etching the copper foil is formed, and has electrical insulation on the insulating film 31 and the circuit wiring 32 except for the terminal portion. Coverlay 33 made of synthetic resin or the like
It has a structure covered with.

On the other hand, the circuit wiring 3
No. 2 is not formed, and has a structure in which the cover lay 33 is directly covered on the insulating film 31. The POF fixing section 30 includes a POF mounting section 36 for mounting the POF,
An extension portion 34 extending in a width direction of the FPC 9 from a part of the POF placement portion 36, and is orthogonal to the width direction so that the tip of the extension portion is inserted when the extension portion 34 is folded. And a rectangular slit 35 pierced in the thickness direction of the FPC 9 along the direction of the FPC 9. The distal end portion 34a of the extending portion 34 is formed wider than the main body portion 34b of the extending portion 34, and the slit 35 has an opening length shorter than the width of the distal end portion 34a of the extending portion 34 and the main body portion 34b. Is formed so as to be longer than the width. The POF fixing unit 30
The extension 34 formed in this way is folded back toward the slit 35, and the distal end 34a is fitted into the slit 35 so as to pass through the slit 35, whereby the distal end 34a of the extension 34 is inserted.
Has a structure in which the wide portion is caught on the periphery of the opening of the slit 35 on the insulating film 31 side, and the extension portion 34 does not easily come out of the slit 35.

The FPC 9 thus formed has PO
F12 is attached and fixed by the following method and integrated. That is, first, FPO is placed on the POF placement section 36 of the FPC 9.
The POF 12 is placed along the longitudinal direction of the PC 9. Next, the extension part 34 is folded in the direction of the slit 35 so that the placed POF 12 is wound. Finally, the POF 12 can be integrated with the FPC 9 by inserting the folded distal end portion 34a of the extension portion 34 into the slit 35 so that the extension portion 34 does not fall out of the slit 35. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. 2 and shows an integrated structure of the composite harness 15 thus formed. In order to securely attach and fix the POF 12 to the FPC 9, the length of the extension portion 34 is
It is determined as appropriate from the outer diameter of 12 and the position where the slit 35 is formed.

In this embodiment, the structure in which the POF 12 placed on the POF placement portion 36 is wound around the extension portion 34 of the POF fixing portion 30 and integrated with the FPC 9 has been described, for example, as shown in FIG. As described above, the POF 12 is adhered on the POF receiver 36 via the adhesive 37, or as shown in FIG. 6, the POF 12 is fixed on the POF receiver 36 via the adhesive tape 38 to be integrated. Such a structure may be adopted. In this way, P
The OF can be integrated with the FPC. In this example, the optical fiber integrated with the FPC is PO
Although described using F, for example, a quartz optical fiber may be used. Further, the circuit wiring of the FPC may be formed by stamping or plating a copper foil.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the optical fiber cable is laid on the FPC harness, the optical fiber cable can be laid at the same time by the wiring step of the FPC harness. Since the FPC harness is thin and flat, it cannot be handled in the same way as an electric wire, and special attention must be paid to the assembly, such as the bending radius is regulated. This is a process similar to that described above, and by integrating the FPC harness and the optical fiber cable, the harness wiring process can be simplified. And F
Since the PC has better heat radiation characteristics than the wire harness and can be reduced in weight, the overall weight can be reduced by integrating the PC with a lightweight optical fiber.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automobile L using an optical / electric combined harness in which an FPC and a POF are integrated according to an embodiment of the present invention.
It is the upper side schematic diagram which transmitted a part showing AN.

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of a part of FIG. 1 which is enlarged and further transmitted.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing an FPC serving as a harness base material constituting the composite harness.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA ′ of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 shows an FPC and a POF according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an integrated structure of an optical / electrical composite harness in which the above-mentioned components are integrated.

FIG. 6 shows an FPC and a P according to still another embodiment of the present invention.
It is sectional drawing which shows the integrated structure of the optical / electric composite harness which integrated OF.

FIG. 7 is a top view showing a MOST standard automotive LAN.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Automotive LAN, 2, 3, 4 ... Board connector,
5, 6, 7 ... node, 8, 9, 10 ... FPC, 11, 1
2,13 ... POF, 14,15,16 ... Composite harness,
17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, ... composite connector,
23, 24 ... ferrule, 25, 26, 32 ... circuit wiring, 27, 28 ... connection terminal, 29 ... FPC circuit part, 30
... POF fixing part, 31 ... insulating film, 33 ... cover lay, 34 ... extension part, 35 ... slit, 36 ... POF mounting part, 37 ... adhesive, 38 ... adhesive tape.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical / electrical device comprising: a flexible printed circuit harness in which wiring made of a conductive pattern is formed on an insulating film; and an optical fiber cable laid on the flexible printed circuit harness. Composite harness. 2. The flexible printed circuit harness has a main body portion on which the conductive pattern is wired, and an extending portion extending from a side of the main body portion and having a wide end. A slit is provided in which the tip of the extension is fitted and locked when the extension is folded back toward the main body, and the optical fiber cable is provided on the flexible printed circuit harness. After being placed between the extension and the slit, the extension is folded back and wrapped around an optical fiber cable, and the tip of the extension is fitted into the slit to connect the optical fiber cable to the flexible printed circuit. The combined optical / electric harness according to claim 1, wherein the combined optical / electric harness is mounted and fixed on the harness. 3. The wiring of the flexible printed circuit harness is formed by etching, punching, or plating copper foil, and the optical fiber cable is a plastic optical fiber or a quartz optical fiber. 3. The combined optical / electric harness according to 1 or 2. 4. The combined optical / electric harness according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber cable is fixed to the flexible printed circuit harness with an adhesive or an adhesive tape. .